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Page 9 of 76

December 15, 2021

David Bellamah, and his business, Bellamah Vein & Surgery, PLLC, will pay $3.75 million to resolve allegations that they billed government healthcare programs for medically unnecessary venous procedures based on false medical records.  Defendants allegedly used improper techniques to conduct and analyze ultrasounds and used false ultrasound findings to diagnoses and treat venous reflux disease and varicose veins. The government’s claims were initiated by the filing a qui tam complaint by Lenore Lezanne, who previously worked as a sonographer at the Bellamah Vein Center; Lezane will receive a whistleblower award of 17% of the amounts recovered.  USAO MT

December 8, 2021

The owner and medical director of Georgia’s Milton Hall Surgical Associates, Jeffrey M. Gallups, will pay $3 million, and medical device manufacturer Entellus Medical will pay $1.2 million, to resolve claims that they entered into an unlawful kickback arrangement.  The government alleged that Gallups received cash payments and all-expense paid trips from Entellus in return for directing MHSA physicians to utilize sinuplasty related medical devices exclusively from Entellus and increase the number of sinuplasty procedures performed.  In addition, Gallups was alleged to have received “commissions” from medical testing laboratory NextHealth, in exchange for directing MHSA doctors to order medically unnecessary toxicology and genetic tests from NextHealth.  The settlement resolves a qui tam action initiated by former MHSA physician Myron Jones, M.D., who will receive approximately $614,000 from the settlement.  USAO ND GA

December 7, 2021

The SEC has issued a whistleblower reward of $5 million to an individual who voluntarily provided original information to the Commission regarding the misuse of proceeds from a securities offering.  The SEC found that the whistleblower promptly reported the misconduct, enabling the Commission to quickly bring a successful enforcement action and return millions to harmed investors.  SEC

December 7, 2021

New Jersey-based Princeton Pathology Services P.A. will pay $2.4 million to resolve allegations that it overbilled Medicare by submitting claims using a Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code that required written analysis by a pathologist, when no such analysis was required or had been prepared.  A whistleblower, Jayant Barai, M.D., initiated the matter by filing a qui tam complaint under the False Claims Act, and will receive an award of $456,000USAO NJ

December 2, 2021

Texas-based Flower Mound Hospital Partners LLC has agreed to pay $18 million and enter into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement to resolve fraud allegations.  According to Leslie Jennings, M.D., one of many physician-owners, when Flower Mound repurchased shares from physician-owners nearing retirement age and resold them to younger physicians, the company allegedly improperly took into account the value of each physician’s referrals in selecting to whom and how many shares would be resold.  Claims arising from these referrals were then knowingly submitted to Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE, in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, Physician Self-Referral Law, and False Claims Act.  For initiating a lawsuit that resulted in a successful enforcement action, Jennings will receive a $3 million share of the settlement.  DOJ

December 1, 2021

A collection of hospices known as Crossroads Hospice has agreed to pay $5.5 million to settle allegations raised in two qui tam suits by former employees Leanne Malone, Jackie Burns, and Angela Heck, and a home health physician in Tennessee, Dr. David Weber.  In their lawsuits, the whistleblowers alleged that between 2012 and 2014, Crossroads billed Medicare for hospice care for patients who were not terminally ill, including patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia.  Malone, Burns, and Heck will divide a million-dollar relator’s share.  USAO WDTN

November 23, 2021

A number of related entities operating in Ohio and Tennessee as Crossroads Hospice have agreed to pay $5.5 million to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims for hospice services that were not covered by Medicare.  Specifically, the government alleged that over a period of three years, Crossroads submitted claims for dementia or Alzheimer’s patients who were not terminally ill for at least a portion of the more than three years that the patients received care.  Two qui tam actions were filed regarding the false claims; the three individuals who jointly filed the first action, Leanne Malone, Jackie Burns and Angela Heck, were previously employees of Crossroads, and will receive approximately $1.045 millionDOJ

November 22, 2021

Two whistleblowers who provided the SEC with new and significant information during an existing investigation, including information about misconduct occurring in different geographic areas, received awards of approximately $6.2 million and $1.3 million.  The award to the first claimant was also based in part on a recovery in a related action, based on findings that the whistleblower provided information to the relevant other agency.  In support of the first claimant’s larger award, the SEC also cited that their information was more significant, that the majority of the relief ordered was based on information provided by them, that they reported their concerns internally prior than reporting to the SEC, and they reported more expeditiously.  SEC
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